BUSINESS

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Every so often a stock stops being the thing investors thought it was.

For most of the past decade, Dell Technologies (DELL) was a name people owned without thinking about it much. It sold laptops to school districts and servers to mid-sized banks, threw off cash, and traded at the multiple the market reserves for companies it expects to grow slowly and predictably forever.

That reputation was fair. Dell went private in 2013, returned to public markets in 2018, and spent years getting described as a hardware business in a software world.

Then artificial intelligence (AI) showed up, and the unglamorous part of Dell’s business turned out to be the part that mattered. Somebody has to build the machines that run the models, wire them, cool them and service them.

Wall Street has been marking that discovery up in real time. The stock has roughly quadrupled over the past year, and analyst notes have spent most of it chasing the price rather than leading it.

Which brings us to Wednesday, Sept. 9, when Evercore ISI lifted its price target on Dell to $650 from $575 and kept an outperform rating, according to CNBC.

That is a large number. It is also the least interesting number in the note.

Why Dell’s AI server backlog changed the story

For the target to makes sense, you need to understand the backlog.

Dell reported fiscal second quarter results on Sept. 1 that broke the model most investors were carrying into the print. Revenue landed at $47 billion, up 58% from a year earlier, and adjusted earnings per share hit $7.04, up 203%, according to a company statement.

The figure that actually moved the stock was not revenue. Dell booked $60.9 billion in AI server orders during the quarter and finished it with a $95 billion AI backlog, “the most in our history,” said operating chief Jeff Clarke, according to a company statement.

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Three months earlier that backlog sat at $51.3 billion. Dell also raised full-year guidance for the second time this fiscal year, to roughly $192 billion in revenue and $25.50 in adjusted earnings per share.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup all lifted their price targets after the report, reported MarketWatch.

What makes the backlog unusual is that it is not purely a demand signal. Dell has been supply constrained on memory, flash and processors, which means some of that $95 billion reflects orders the company physically could not fill in the quarter.

That cuts both ways for shareholders. Constraint protects pricing and pushes revenue into future quarters, but it also means the conversion timetable belongs partly to Dell’s suppliers rather than to Dell.

What Evercore’s new Dell price target actually says

The Evercore argument is not that the AI trade is early. It is that Dell’s next leg comes from somewhere other than raw server volume.

Analyst Amit Daryanani tied the next phase of appreciation to enterprise AI adoption, higher-margin attach and continued operating expense leverage. Then he added the line most of Wednesday’s coverage skipped past, writing that the firm was maintaining its rating and raising its target to $650, “with upside at $1,000,” according to CNBC.

Here is the context in a few numbers:

Dell’s AI backlog stood at $95 billion at quarter end, against roughly $74 billion in AI server revenue guided for the entire fiscal year, according to a company statement.

Full-year adjusted earnings per share guidance went to $25.50 from $17.90, according to a company statement.

Shares closed Wednesday at $535.25 after touching an intraday high of $562.99, according to StockAnalysis.com.

That last line is the one I keep going back to. The stock printed a fresh 52-week high on the upgrade and then handed almost all of it back, closing up 0.26%.

From Wednesday’s close, the $650 target implies about 21% upside. The $1,000 figure implies roughly 87%.

Evercore ISI raises its Dell price target to $650 and floats a $1,000 bull case.NurPhoto / Getty Images

Running the math behind the $1,000 case

I ran the numbers against Dell’s own guidance, and the bull case turns out to be arithmetic rather than enthusiasm.

At $650, Dell would trade near 25 times the $25.50 in adjusted earnings the company has guided to for this fiscal year. That is a full-market multiple for a hardware maker, though not an absurd one at this growth rate.

Get to $1,000 on that same multiple and you need something close to $40 in earnings per share. Dell earned $10.30 on an adjusted basis across all of fiscal 2026.

Related: Analyst resets Dell stock price target after earnings

So the bull case is not asking whether Dell beats this quarter. It is asking whether Dell can roughly quadruple fiscal 2026 earnings inside about two years and hold a premium multiple the whole way.

My analysis keeps landing on one variable: how much of that $95 billion backlog converts, and at what margin. Dell has said AI server profitability is tracking to a mid-single-digit operating margin, well under what the company earns on storage and commercial PCs.

Backlog tells you the revenue is coming. It tells you almost nothing about what falls to the bottom line.

That distinction is why the same $95 billion can support a $650 target and a $1,000 target at the same time without either being dishonest. One assumes Dell ships the backlog. The other assumes Dell ships it and earns more on each unit than it does today.

What Dell investors should watch next

Wednesday’s intraday reversal matters because it shows where the marginal buyer sits.

A $650 target on a $535 stock is a bet that the backlog converts. A $1,000 target is a bet that the mix improves while it converts, which is a different and considerably harder claim.

Dell has at least given investors a checkable schedule for finding out. Third quarter guidance calls for about $49 billion in revenue and $6.50 in adjusted earnings per share, with results due in late November.

Watch gross margin and the storage line rather than the headline revenue figure. Storage carries the margin profile that makes the high case work, and it grew 26% last quarter off a small base.

If margin follows the backlog, the case for the high target gets easier to make. If it does not, $650 stops looking like a waypoint and starts looking like the ceiling.

For anyone holding Dell after a year like this one, that is the more useful question than whether an analyst moved a number on a Wednesday morning. The target tells you what one firm thinks. Gross margin tells you whether the company can earn it.

Related: Dell Technologies Inc. Q2 2027 Earnings: Recap of $DELL Earnings Call, Forecast 

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The flag carrier for Colombia and the fourth-largest airline in South America after LATAM and two Brazilian giants, Avianca unveiled its Insignia business class in April 2024 for several of its Boeing 787 planes.

Routes ran from El Dorado International Airport (BOG) in Bogotá and José María Córdova International Airport  (MDE) in Medellín to several destinations in Europe and New York.

The high-fare class caters to wealthy travelers with an upgraded long-haul business class featuring lie-flat seats and premium dining through partnerships with local chefs.

This week, the airline announced an Insignia overhaul featuring redesigned suites with sliding doors and more privacy.

The exact configuration and dimension of the seats will be shared closer to when they are rolled out in 2027, but the airline did reveal that they will have cabin doors that allow a traveler to block out their neighbor or the aisle.

Avianca reveals new Insignia business class with sliding doors

American Airlines recently rolled out the first of what will eventually be 20 Boeing 777-300ER widebody jetliners retrofitted with the same concept of sliding door suites in a one-two-one configuration.

The other upgrades will include Meridian noise-canceling headphones at every seat, a pajama and slipper set designed by local Colombian designer Maaji, and an amenity kit featuring Loto del Sur products, designed to evoke the handwoven craftwork of indigenous women in the Chimichagua region of Colombia.

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Local contemporary chefs Álvaro Clavijo of El Chato in Bogotá and Rafael Buitrago of Elvia Barichara in Santander will create the new menu featuring Latin American flavors.

Select flights from Bogotá and Medellín will offer treats from Colombian burger chain Home Burgers, while routes departing from Europe will feature wine and olive oil products from Umbria-based estate Castello Monte Vibiano.

The new Avianca Insignia suites will be available on select Boeing 787 planes in 2027.Avianca

Business-class travelers get “a differentiated experience to service excellence”

Earlier in the summer, Avianca unveiled a new level in its LifeMiles loyalty program. The Magno tier is attained through 110,000 qualifying miles on Avianca flights and includes perks such as lounge access and concierge services at check-in for travelers flying in the Insginia fare class.

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“These initiatives are part of our ongoing work to transform the travel experience for our customers,” Avianca President Gabriel Oliva said in a statement. “Beyond specific elements, they reflect our commitment to offering a differentiated experience throughservice excellence, greater personalization and consistent standards across our network.”

Adrián Neuhauser, chief executive of the Abra Group parent company that also owns Brazil’s GOL Linhas Aéreas and Wamos Air in Spain, also said the updates aim “to exceed the expectations of our most discerning customers on every flight and in every detail.

“Likewise, Magno, the new status tier for Lifemiles and Smiles, recognizes our most loyalcustomers with exclusive, personalized benefits and services,” Neuhauser said further. “The trust and preference of the more than 48 million members of our loyalty programs reaffirm the long-term relationship we have built with those who choose us.”

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Wall Street has spent much of the past year debating whether Meta’s enormous AI spending would ever pay off beyond better ads. On September 10, one of the bank’s biggest skeptics changed his answer.

JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth upgraded Meta Platforms and raised his price target sharply. Arguing the company’s new AI agent and frontier models open a growth path that goes well beyond the advertising business Meta has leaned on for years.

JPMorgan’s makes an upgrade on Meta stock after its Muse AI release

JPMorgan moved Meta to Overweight from Neutral and lifted its price target to $820 from $640 in a note published September 10. The new target implies roughly 25% upside from the September 9 closing price, according to GuruFocus. A notable jump from where the bank stood on the stock just months earlier.

Anmuth’s reasoning is centered on timing. He wrote that there is still meaningful upside potential for Meta, because Meta is in the early stages of releasing frontier models and AI-driven products beyond advertising, pointing specifically to the Muse AI agent and Meta Model API access.

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The analyst also credited Meta’s Superintelligence Lab with essentially delivering on its goal of reaching the AI frontier within a year, citing an accelerating cadence of Muse Spark model releases that culminated in Muse Spark 1.3, which he said is now competitive with cutting-edge models from OpenAI and Anthropic.

Looking ahead, Anmuth pointed to an upcoming model internally dubbed Watermelon, which he expects to unlock further opportunities across consumer products, engagement, advertising and internal efficiency.

Muse’s early traction and what it means for revenue

Meta’s Muse AI has only been available for a few days, but JPMorgan already has data to point to. The agent reached as high as number three in the U.S. App Store on its second day alone, with early usage running at roughly ten times that of internal training cohorts.

Monetization is not the near-term priority for Muse, Anmuth noted, but he also pointed to longer-term opportunities from take-rate commissions and subscriptions in a market he sized in the tens of trillions of dollars.

That optimism comes with a real cost attached. Anmuth is now projecting Meta’s capital expenditures at $243 billion in 2027 and $284 billion in 2028, both above Wall Street consensus, underscoring the enormous cash demands required to support the company’s AI buildout, as reported by Investing.com.

Even with that spending backdrop, Anmuth argued there is still meaningful headroom in core advertising from AI-driven improvements tied to content recommendations, better ad targeting and retrieval, and AI-generated ad content.

For investors, JPMorgan’s upgrade is less a claim that Meta has already proven its AI bet and more a wager that the market is underpricing the company’s early product momentum.NurPhoto / Getty Images

How Meta stock has reacted to JPMorgan’s call

Meta shares are up about 20% from their recent 52-week lows but were still roughly flat for the year heading into September 10, compared with an approximately 12% gain for the S&P 500 over the same stretch. That gap is central to JPMorgan’s argument that the stock has room to catch up.

Anmuth’s new price target is built on 23 times his 2028 earnings estimate of $35.44 a share. A multiple he said could prove conservative if Meta’s AI products start converting into revenue faster than expected, according to the original report on Investing.com.

The swing in tone is notable given where JPMorgan stood just months ago. The bank had actually downgraded Meta to Neutral from Overweight in April, cutting its target to $725 from $825 the day after Meta’s first-quarter earnings, when a surprise increase in capital spending guidance helped send shares down more than 10% in a single session, TheStreet reported.

JPMorgan is not alone in its renewed optimism. KeyBanc maintained an Overweight rating with a $780 price target after the Muse launch, while Bernstein reiterated an Outperform rating with an $800 target. Citing Meta’s strength in AI-driven advertising.

What it means for Meta investors

For investors, JPMorgan’s upgrade is less a claim that Meta has already proven its AI bet and more a wager that the market is underpricing the company’s early product momentum.

The bank is betting Muse and other future models like Watermelon become real and meaningful growth drivers as Meta expands beyond advertising. This helps justify the enormous capital spending required to build out its AI infrastructure.

That bet is not without risk.

The projected free cash flow deficit assumes none of Meta’s AI products generate meaningful revenue in the next two years. This means the investment case is largely dependent on Anmuth’s forecasts. A move to be conservative rather than optimistic.

Still, the size of the target increase and the swing from a downgrade earlier this year to an upgrade earlier this year now suggest Wall Street’s patience with Meta’s AI spending may be growing, even if the payoff for shareholders remains, by JPMorgan’s own admission, still a few years away.

The more bullish view is that Meta may now be reaching a point where evidence of product adoption is beginning to arrive before the full financial payoff — in other words, giving investors a clearer reason to tolerate the enormous upfront cost

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When traveling outside of their country, visitors are always subject to local laws that, in some cases, can be drastically different from those back home.

With recreational marijuana use legalized in 24 states and the District of Columbia as of 2026, either knowingly or unknowingly bringing cannabis products into other countries is a common way that some Americans get into serious legal trouble when traveling.

At the start of the summer, Thailand changed its border laws to reclassify cannabis buds as a fineable offense, meaning that anyone caught bringing them into the country now faces criminal charges instead of simple confiscation.

Countries such as Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates are among the many countries that enforce strict zero-tolerance policies, under which Americans claiming lack of knowledge have in the past faced detention and multi-year prison sentences, according to The Guardian.

“Legal in your home state does not mean you can take it abroad”

On Sept. 8, the U.S. State Department issued an official warning on its X and Facebook accounts, telling Americans not to travel internationally with marijuana or any other cannabis-derived products.

“U.S. citizens are subject to local laws,” the State Department warning reads. “Just because a cannabis, THC, or CBD product is legal in your home state does not mean you can take it abroad. This includes prescribed medical marijuana.”

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The government agency goes on to warn that even countries with legal or decriminalized cannabis do not necessarily allow tourists to freely transport it when entering.

Canada, which is among the eight countries that have fully legalized marijuana, has strict laws against it being brought in at border crossings (including from the United States and a state where it is also legalized).

Transporting marijuana cross-border is strictly forbidden by almost every country in the world.Shutterstock

“Many countries impose severe criminal penalties for possessing cannabis”

“Many countries impose severe criminal penalties for possessing cannabis or cannabis-derived products,” the State Department writes.

As frequent cannabis users sometimes end up unintentionally leaving products or paraphernalia with traces of them in other belongings, international travelers are told to “always pack a completely empty bag” and check suitcases and other bags in which they plan to transport their items to make sure they do not accidentally contain a cannabis product.

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“Americans have been arrested after unintentionally bringing cannabis products into another country, including edibles, vape cartridges, oils, and concentrates,” the warning continues. “Check all suitcase compartments and pockets carefully before traveling.”

The same goes for bringing marijuana into the U.S., as recent incidents in U.S. airports have shown.

In April 2026, two Baltimore travelers coming home from the United Kingdom through Washington Dulles International were arrested with 57 pounds of marijuana in their baggage, according to Axios.

Similarly, a New Jersey traveler at Portland International Airport was stopped at the gate when TSA officers discovered more than 30 pounds of marijuana in his checked bags, Oregon Live reported.

Amid such high-profile cases, government agencies, including the TSA and the State Department, periodically offer similar reminders about both local laws and cross-border prohibitions.

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Shake Shack (SHAK) has had a rough 2026, and the stock now sits about 19% lower for the year.

However, a Wall Street firm thinks that decline has gone far enough.

On Sept. 8, 2026, RBC Capital Markets started coverage of the burger chain with an Outperform rating and an $89 price target.

That target points to roughly 28% upside from where shares closed the prior Friday.

Several brokers have cut their Shake Shack targets after a broad guidance reset earlier this year.

Why RBC thinks Shake Shack shares can recover

RBC analyst Logan Reich, who covers the consumer cyclical sector for the firm, believes SHAK has reached a turning point after a long slide from its July 2025 highs.

His call rests on two operating changes that he expects to lift results in 2027, at least.

The first is marketing. 

Reich said stronger marketing should push same-store sales growth higher, and RBC models 3.1% growth in 2027 against Wall Street’s consensus of 2.2%.

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The second is cost. 

Reich expects lower beef prices to improve margins in 2027 and 2028, since beef is one of Shake Shack’s largest expenses.

Shake Shack makes its money by selling burgers, fries, and shakes at company-operated locations. It also makes money by collecting fees from licensed shops, so beef costs and customer traffic move its profits directly.

What Starboard’s stake means for Shake Shack investors

Shake Shack got backing from an activist investor this summer.

Starboard Value, the hedge fund run by Jeff Smith, disclosed a several hundred million dollar position in the company, Barron’s reported. 

Activist investors often push company management to control spending, and protect free cash flow. For shareholders, that pressure can act as a check on how freely management spends.

Reich also flagged a management change that could help. 

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He noted that a new finance chief who drops quarterly guidance and sets more conservative targets could produce steadier earnings beats.

That view aligns with the company’s stronger second quarter, when Shake Shack reported adjusted earnings of $0.43 a share and beat expectations of $0.33.

Why the valuation still carries real risk

Shake Shack shares recently traded near $67 with a price-to-earnings ratio above 70.

That tells you the market still prices Shake Shack like a fast-growing company.

RBC values Shake Shack at about 11 times its expected 2027 earnings. That’s before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, which is near a historical low.

If consumers cut back on eating out or food costs climb again, a premium name like Shake Shack feels the impact on margins quickly.

Analysts remain divided. Of the 15 analysts who cover the stock, 6 rate it a Buy.

RBC started coverage of Shake Shack with an Outperform rating on Sept. 8, 2026.Kayla Bartkowski / Getty Images

What Shake Shack investors should watch next

RBC’s $89 target gives growth-focused investors a clear bull case. However, a few things need to hold for the call to work:

Key factors that support RBC’s Shake Shack call

Same-store sales stay on the higher track RBC expects into 2027.

Beef prices hold near current levels so margins can widen.

Starboard’s pressure keeps spending disciplined and free cash flow strong.

Conservative guidance produces steady quarterly beats.

If those factors hold, the recent drop could be a reasonable entry point for investors who can handle sharp price swings.

If they slip, the high valuation is the first thing likely to take the hit.

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